The Tavern

I keep reading everywhere about people saying to keep your stashes on Lair: 2. What makes that such a good idea? Why not Lair: 1?

Also, why not keep stashes in the Hive? The Hive seems like a much better place IMO, it's already packed with honeycombs and if you clear it out enemies won't spawn there anymore.

The reason for Lair:2 is that there is a small possibility that intelligent monsters may spawn on Lair:1 or venture down the stairs from the main dungeon, and that these could help themselves to useful items in your stash.

Personally though I'm wondering how big this risk is and am considering just using Lair:1 to save time.

I think the only advantage of Lair over Hive is that it may be lower down in the dungeon so it doesn't take as long to get back to.

The important thing is to choose a branch where no monsters will spawn, that would pickup or destroy the stuff you drop. Monsters do spawn - even if you cleaned a level or branch - but on Lair and Hive there will be only animals. They do not pickup stuff.

The suggestion to build your stash on the second level of such a branch comes from the fact, that monsters can take stairs. You wouldn't want to welcome e.g. red jellies or acid blobs with open arms while standing at your stash

And the decision to build a stash in Lair or Hive depends only on the depth of their entrance in the dungeon. If you're cleaning up branches of the Lair - build it in Lair. If the entrance to the Hive is deeper in the dungeon and you are cleaning up the Vaults and its branches, choose Hive. But the 2-3 levels in difference usually don't safe so much travel time.

There's an extremely rare chance that a monster capable of using/destroying your stuff may appear on the 1st floor of those branches (only happened to me twice). Basically, only ridiculously paranoid players are afraid to use L:1/H:1. People also use the Vestibule for stashing away items.

I keep my stash on L:1 (scrolls, potions, and artifacts) and H:1 (food). I leave everything else laying around the dungeon.

Monsters spawn in the hive after you have cleared it? Whenever I kill everything in it, I never see another monster there for the rest of the game. Is it a really small chance?

A really small chance, yes. I found Komodo Dragon, Yak, and other animals wandering around in L2 long after I cleared it, but only rarely.

It has to be level 2, as explained above.

And creatures do slowly respawn. Spending more time on a level gradually increases the rate and difficulty of the new monsters, and after a really long time the odds of it spawning unusually powerful monsters goes way up.

That's why I use Hive:2. No hydras; just bees all the way down.

I usually use both Lair:1 and Hive:1. Yes, monsters spawn, but honestly I've never had a monster spawn and use/destroy my stash.

I've been using lair 1 since... I don't know, version 0.3.0 or so? Never once have I had a problem with it. On rare occasions I'll also use the temple. Sometimes hive, as a secondary stash, but I find lair more convenient due to how it is a hub for a bunch of other sub branches. And finally, if I'm allruning, I'll have one in the vestibule.

In terms of whether lair or hive is a better stash, I would have to say lair, in almost all games. You usually shouldn't be doing the hive that early, and by the time you reach the lair, you'll probably be carrying around some stuff worth stashing.